Newsletter September 2021

Newsletter September 2021

Hello all Jazz friends,

A warm welcome to all our new friends who have joined as members recently.

The Keith Marshall band gave a large and appreciative audience a great evening of swing music last month, sounding much bigger than their nine piece line up suggested.

The Firebyrd Trio and special friends

Thursday 9th September at Narberth Rugby club.

The next Narberth Jazz event is especially for all local members and friends to enjoy a low cost event on Thursday 9th September at Narberth Rugby club. The evening will feature The Firebyrd Trio and special friends. The trio consists of George Whitfield accordion, Alan Argent saxophone, and Jack Deere Jones bass, who will be joined by selected musician friends later in the evening.

These guys live locally, really know their music, and want to support our community efforts to keep jazz live and local. We hope that you will come and enjoy their mellow music based mostly on standards of popular music.

You don’t have to book for this event as the venue is large enough to cope, but parking may be scarce so cars are best left in the town, it’s only a short walk up the lane by the Creative Cafe to the club. This month is special for us as it is the first time we have had two events at two new venues in one month!

Duski

Friday 24th September at Haverhub, Haverfordwest

We have partnered with the new arts centre in Haverfordwest – Haverhub to present an exciting group of Welsh players who are pushing Welsh jazz into the 21st century with their blend of rock and improvised music – DUSKI.

We are proud to bring them to this exciting new arts venue which has already hosted exhibitions and young peoples gigs. DUSKI began as a trio in Cardiff comprising of sax, double bass and drums, then guitar (Dan Messore) and keyboards (Paul Jones) joined. Jazz styles morphed into heavy jams with collective improvising.

Duski toured the UK three times to promote their debut album. During this process, the band started developing new music that ended up dominating the set and a second album was on the horizon inspired by the music of Donny McCasslin and Pat Metheny. As well as musical, there were visual influences for the album including the works of David Lynch and Dario Argento. Their third CD, Make A Wish was released on the American Ropeadope label and shows how much this band has developed. They played Green Man festival and  toured Europe to great acclaim.

If you enjoy modern creative music this is a must, tickets £12 from our website www.narberthjazz.wales

You can hear them here  https://duskimusic.co.uk/album/make-a-wish

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Narberth Jazz Projects

Information on our projects here www.narberthjazz.wales/projects

Youth Band

Last month we applied for a grant for our long term projects, but we missed the targets for funding. Undeterred, we will find the right formula and try again. Back in the 1990’s we helped a great musician and teacher, Jim Luxton, to start and run a Narberth Youth Band which played at local events, and we feel the time is right to revive the idea and help young people reach their musical potential. we now ask for your help to find young musicians who may be interested to play in a new youth band.

Do you have a young person in the family or neighbourhood who might enjoy being in at the start of a new band to play local functions and festivals? Please let us know at info@narberthjazz.wales

Jazz Afternoons

We would like to hold  ‘jazz afternoons’ at a local cafe or bar where we would invite people living alone to meet and listen to recorded music of their choice and meet people and perhaps make friends. Please let us know if you would like to take part info@narberthjazz.wales

Retirement and Care Homes – Music Project

Another ambition is to take our live music events into local care homes and make them available to our elderly friends who cannot get out to our live events. We will firstly video performances and stream them into care homes and eventually take musicians in to perform live in the homes. Several care homes have told us they would like to have our shows and we will continue to use your donations for this project. If you would like to suggest other places that would benefit, we would like to know. Please email on info@narberthjazz.wales

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We hope you were able to get to the Aberjazz festival last weekend, but if you did not, you can visit Pure West Radio who streamed some of their concerts. Here is the link to one

https://www.podcasts.com/pure-west-radio-august-2020–d22637a90/episode/pure-west-radio-aberjazz-takeover-with-bb-skone-martyn-oughton-llareggubb-298-9-10pm

The BBC prom featuring the young British saxophonist Nubya Garcia is still available here https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episodes/b007v097/bbc-proms

We hope to see you soon at one of the NJ events, and please remember we are guided by you so do let us know your opinions on any aspect of Narberth Jazz.

Stay well

Declan and the NJ team

Firebyrd Trio

Firebyrd Trio Narberth Rugby club Thursday 9th. September 7:30pm

 

The Firebyrd & Friends evening at Narberth Rugby club features three of the best players and nicest people in local music, they have played at recent Food Festivals and George Whitfield  who sings and plays accordion, has been entertaining  crowds at festivals and parades in Narberth for years. Alan Argent is now a marvellous saxophonist who is constantly developing and who’s playing currently reminds me of Stan Getz and Micheal Brecker. Jack Deer-Jones  is a very impressive young Bass player, equally at home on the big wooden one and electric basses.

They will invite some special guests to play on some  standard tunes as they progress through their set as opposed to an open jam session. They will add players to build to the end of the evening with a big line up of players. It will be a relaxed and casual blow with like minded musicians, all based locally. We are lucky to have many talented musicians here in Pembrokeshire and happily some of them want to be creative and entertaining in a jazz mode, and play for Narberth Jazz audiences.

Trio line up confirmed for Thursday 9th September.

Jack Deere-Jones (electric) bass

George Whitfield accordion & vocals

Alan Argent – tenor & soprano saxophone

Narberth Jazz Newsletter August 2021

Hello and welcome to all our Jazz friends,
Our launch event at Lampeter House last month was blessed with a lovely sunshine
day so that Moonshine Boulevard and Afternoon in Paris were perfectly in tune with
the day. They were so glad to be playing for an appreciative audience and we were
able to meet up with friends to enjoy the music. We owe a huge thank you to all our
core group and helpers who worked so hard to make it happen, and to our hosts who
graciously helped us to be there. You can also see some pictures from the day on our
Facebook page. Continue reading

Live Jazz in West Wales

Live Jazz in West Wales

Well it’s July and we are finally feeling that summer is in full flow and Covid no longer quite rules our lives. Despite all the worry and pain, you and I are through the worst of it. How lucky we are to live in West Wales, and now a live jazz experience is once again to experience and enjoy.

Narberth Jazz launched the new season of events with the Garden Party at Lampeter House and thanks to sublime weather and music from Moonshine Boulevard  and Afternoon in Paris it was a perfect way to meet up with old friends and enjoy an afternoon of old jazz.

Continue reading

Narberth Jazz News July 1st 2021

Narberth Jazz News July 1st 2021

Hello Jazz Friends,
Well it’s July and we are finally feeling that summer is in full flow and Covid no longer rules our lives. Despite all the worry and pain, you and I are through the worst of it. How lucky we are to live in West Wales, and now a live jazz experience is once again within sight after 15 months of drought and In under 2 weeks we can come together and enjoy a garden party with music and get back to our usual monthly rendezvous.
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Relaunch

Relaunch

Hello Friends,

I have to tell you the bad news first. The Social Evening planned for 24th. June at the Plas Hotel has to be scaled down. Current Covid rules mean that we cannot gather inside, but the hotel has agreed that we can have a casual chat and drink outside on the terrace. They have also said that we can test the p.a. equipment which has been in storage for over a year. We had hoped to gather to chat and invite musicians to jam but do please come if the weather allows.

Continue reading